Flat-Earth

The following materials include links to fuller bibliographic information in the Library of Congress Online Catalog. Links to digital content are included when available.

    Allegro, James J. The bottom of the universe: Flat earth science in the Age of Encounter. History of Science. v. 55, no. 1, Mar 2017: 61-85.
    Call Number: Q125 .H63
    Blakeston, Oswell. England's latter-day flatearthists. (The story of a correspondence.) Life and letters, v. 62, July 1949: 9–24.
    Call Number: AP4.L416, v.62
    Cohen, Daniel. Is the earth flat or hollow? Science digest, v. 72, Nov. 1972: 62–66. col. illus.
    Call Number: Q1 .S383 v.72
    Davenport, Walter. They call me a flathead. Collier's, v. 79, May 14, 1927: 30–31. illus., ports.
    Call Number: AP2 .C65, v. 79
    "Wilbur Glenn Voliva, the boss of Zion City, knows the world is flat. He can prove it. He doesn't care what you think or what the newspapers say. He's still doing business at the old stand, and business couldn't be better."
    Flat earth. New statesman and nation, new ser., v. 9, Jan. 12, 1935: 35–36.
    Call Number: AP4.N64, s. 2, v. 9
    Signed Y. Y.
    On the views of Henry Edgell, "the most persistent modern advocate of the theory that the earth is flat," who had just died at the age of 73.
    Gates, David, and Jennifer Smith. Keeping the flat-earth faith. Newsweek, v. 104, July 2, 1984: 12. port.
    Call Number: AP2 .N6772, v. 104
    On Charles K. Johnson and the International Flat Earth Research Society.
    George, Alison. Why Believe in a Flat Earth? New Scientist v. 229, no. 3059, February 6, 2016: 25.
    Call Number: Q1 .N52
    Available online from EbscoHost Academic Search Complete External
    Gould, Stephen J. The persistently flat earth. Natural history, v. 103, Mar. 1994: 12, 14–19.
    Call Number: QH1.N13, v. 103
    Available online from the American Museum of Natural History Digital Repository External
    Investigates the relatively recent origin of the notion that scholars of the Middle Ages, with few exceptions, believed the earth was flat.
    Jones, Charles W. The flat earth. Thought, v. 9, Sept. 1934: 296-307.
    Call Number: AP2 .T333, v. 9
    Available online from the Philosophy Documentation Center External
    Finds that educated persons in the Middle Ages knew that the earth is round.
    Kuzii, Olena & Andrij Rovenchak. What the gravitation of a flat Earth would look like and why thus the Earth is not actually flat. European Journal of Physics. v. 40, 035008, 12 April 2019: 11pp.
    Call Number: QC1 .E84
    Available online from IOP Science External
    Note: Library holdings do not list this issue, v. 40, no. 3, May 2019. However, the specific article is listed in the Web of Science database and freely available online.
    Lindsay, Thomas. Astronomical myths--the flat earth. Popular astronomy, v. 6, Sept. 1898: 405-408.
    Call Number: QB1 .P8, v. 6
    Available online from HathiTrust External
    Loxton, Daniel. Is the Earth Flat? Skeptic. v. 23, no. 2, 2018: 8-13, 64.
    Call Number: Q1 .S35, v. 114
    Available online from Skeptic.com External
    Macht, David I. Science and the Bible. Science, v. 114, Nov. 9, 1951: 505.
    Call Number: Q1 .S35, v. 114
    Available online from JSTOR External
    Letter commenting on Ray's observations on the shape of the earth as implied by Revelation 7:1.
    McCready, William D. Isidore, the Antipodeans, and the shape of the earth. Isis, v. 87, Mar. 1996: 108–127. illus.
    Call Number: Q1 .I7, v. 87
    Available online from JSTOR External
    Bibliographic footnotes.
    "That the sphericity of the earth was clearly established in the ancient world is beyond dispute. Apparently unknown to the Babylonians or Egyptians, it was a discovery of Greek astronomy and was generally accepted among natural philosophers by the time of Aristotle. It was the received view of educated Romans as well, including Pliny the Elder. Among Christian thinkers, however, its fortunes are not quite so clear. It was not without significance that the ancient Hebrews, whose views were reflected in Scripture, conceived the earth as a flat disk covered over by the dome of the heavens ... [Isidore's] grasp on the spherical nature of the earth was tenuous at best ..."
    Ray, Cyrus N. The rectangular earth. Science, v. 113, May 25, 1951: 610.
    Call Number: Q1 .S35, v. 113
    Available online from JSTOR External
    Letter calling attention to Revelation 7:1 which suggests that the earth's shape is that of a flat rectangle.
    Really, is it flat? in Moody Bible Institute monthly, v. 30, Sept. 1929: 6.
    Call Number: BR1 .M6, v. 30
    Russell, Jeffrey B. The flat error: the modern distortion of medieval geography. Mediaevalia, a journal of medieval studies. v.15; 1989. Binghamton, Center for Medieval & Early Renaissance Studies of the State Univ. of NY, 1993. p.[337]–353.
    Call Number: CB351 .M38, v. 15
    "I first review the evidence that educated medieval people knew the shape of the planet, go on to show how and why the ‘Flat Error' developed, and end with some suggestions about the precarious nature of historical knowledge."
    Schadewald, Robert J. The flat-out truth; earth orbits? Moon landings? A fraud! says this prophet. Science digest, v. 88, July 1980: 58–63. port.
    Call Number: Q1 .S383 v. 88
    About Charles K. Johnson, president of the International Flat Earth Research Society.
    Schadewald, Robert J. He knew earth is round, but his proof fell flat. Illus. by W. B. Park. Smithsonian, v. 9, Apr. 1978: 101–102, 104, 106–108, 110, 112–113. illus. (part col.)
    Call Number: AS30 .S6, v. 9
    "A renowned English naturalist [Alfred Russel Wallace] seeking to convince a nonbeliever, won argument, lost the money."
    Serland, F. S. Did the older ecclesiastical writers deny the sphericity of the earth? American Catholic quarterly review, v. 43, Apr. 1918: 340–343.
    Call Number: AP2 .C26, v. 43
    Available online from HathiTrust External
    Points out "that Venerable Bede in the first half of the eighth century knew and taught the sphericity of the earth" and that this knowledge was not dependent on Islamic learning.
    Shippey, Chester M. Answers to the common "proofs" that the earth is a globe. Leaves of healing, v. 66, May 10, 1930: 138–142, 184.
    Call Number: BX7401 .L3, v. 66
    Shippey, Chester M. The true shape of the earth. Leaves of healing, v. 66, May 10, 1930: 158–160, 162–166, 168–173, 175.
    Call Number: BX7401 .L3, v. 66
    Sisk, John P. The view from the edge; on the necessity of the flat earth. Harper's, v. 258, Mar. 1979: 127–129.
    Call Number: AP2.H3, v. 258
    Available online from the Internet Archive External
    On the International Flat Earth Research Society.
    Where are they now? The flat earthers. Newsweek, v. 73, Jan. 13, 1969: 8. port.
    Call Number: AP2 .N6772, v. 73
    About the International Flat Earth Research Society, then based in Dover, England. The portrait is of Samuel Shenton, the society's general secretary.
    Wise, Carl S. The Bible and the earth's shape. Science, v. 113, Feb. 2, 1951: 128.
    Call Number: Q1 .S35, v. 113
    Available online from JSTOR External
    Declares that "the Bible itself nowhere states that the earth is flat."

Additional Resources Available at Other Libraries

Ruth Freitag's original guide included material that does not appear in the Library of Congress Online Catalog. For these items, we have provided links to the OCLC Worldcat External database, a free tool which allows users to search a combined catalog of materials from many of the world's prominent libraries. The original guide provided British Library shelfmarks in the locations where they appear. Call numbers from other institutions have been added and are provided as examples only. Items in question may or may not have copies held at multiple institutions. Consult OCLC Worldcat records for additional holdings information. The list is organized by author's surname where known, and then by title.

The following materials include links to fuller bibliographic information in OCLC Worldcat. External Links to digital content are included when available.

    Proctor, Richard A. A challenge from the earth-flattening society. Knowledge, v. 4, Nov. 30, 1883: 336. External
    Call Number: Held by the Catholic University of America at Q1 .K73
    Available online from HathiTrust External
    Proctor, Richard A. The earth-flattener's challenge. Knowledge, v. 4, Dec. 14, 1883: 362. External
    Call Number: Held by the Catholic University of America at Q1 .K73
    Available online from HathiTrust External
    Woofson, H. Ossipoff. The flat earth and her moulder. Knowledge, v. 5, Mar. 28–Apr. 4, 1884: 213, 233. External
    Call Number: Held by the Catholic University of America at Q1 .K73
    Available online from HathiTrust External
    The former secretary of the Zetetic Society "promises to show the nature of the deceptions practised by some at least among the advocates of the flat-earth theory."